Mexican Researchers Observe Self-Governing Control of Scale Insects

Biologist Juan Manuel Vanegas-Rico

This will be a reprint of an article Entomology Today April 6 2016, which I bookmarked for later use. The fascinating subject is about that common white scale insect (Dactylopius opuntiae) which feeds on Prickly Pear Cactus. This insect turns blood red when you mess with it. I've really only ever found it on the common Cactus Plantation cultivators brought up from Mexico, (Opuntia megacantha) when I live in California, but often encountered it in the urban commercial landscapes I once maintained in and around San Diego, California. My way of control was using a high pressure washer with a water wand setting at a low volume, but high powered action. Even then those little buggers were tough to detach from the cacti pads.

Photo by J.A. Cruz-Rodríguez

 A prickly pear plantation in Axapusco,
Estado de México, México.

Entomology Today:

"Scale insects known as cochineals are major pests of prickly pear in Mexico, and pesticides are often used to control them. However, one prickly pear farmer has been controlling them without the use of insecticides since the year 2000."

"The farmer tipped off a team of scientists from the Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, and he told them that other insects were feeding on the scale insects. The researchers decided to investigate, and they found that the farmer was right. During the entirety of the research, the abundance of scale insects never reached pest status. Furthermore, when populations of scale insects increased, populations of predators increased at the same time, therefore regulating the growth of the scale insect populations. Their observations are described in an article in Environmental Entomology 

Did you take special note of a few key points in the article ? First the farmer of this plantation has been controlling the white scale insects without pesticides since the year 2000. He contacted researchers about predators doing the job for him. Now pay close attention to this single sentence from that second paragraph below here:

"During the entirety of the research, the abundance of scale insects never reached pest status."

The Scale insects never reached "pest" status ??? That would lead one to believe that the white scale is not all that evil when it is in balance. This is true of most all insects, even things we consider weeds in the plant world. Humans tend to judge things in Nature on human terms. Even Darwin did this when he wrote that letter to a minister named Asa Gray in 1860, where he referenced the example of a parasitic wasp which lays eggs on a caterpillar for the expressed purpose of it's young feeding on their host while going through a life stage development. To Darwin, this was absolute  proof that there could not be an omnipotent benevolent God. But exactly how did Darwin arrive at that conclusion ? He was a scientist right ? So what experiment or testing did he use to arrive at such a conclusion of what an intelligent entity which he said never existed, would or wouldn't do and can this experiment be repeatable for any one of us to arrive at the same conclusion ? Today Darwin's staunchest and most diehard defenders use these same fallacy arguments by using untestable metaphysical statesments for their scientific worldview. That's not to say that any of these questions are not legitimate ones, they definitely are. But they are religious questions, not scientific ones. Even the conventionally religious people cannot draw on any conclusions about why their God would do things in such and such a way through any experimentation. This doesn't mean they can't believe or have a faith in a certain way, but using science to test the whys and/or hows of creation by means of scientific research and writing a paper about it are near impossible. Take the origin of liffe experiements, both sides lose here. No one can prove by science how life emerged on Earth by experiment to create life. To be totally fair, this conclusion wasn't Darwin's fault either. Darwin like all of us was a human being on Earth who judged Nature on the basis of human concepts of good, bad, righteous, evil, etc. But still today, we all do this. Even myself at times. Hence when farming, landscaping, gardening or anything else, we all tend to judge any pests as an evil that needs to be obliterated from off the face of our own little world. Then we turn to industrial science for the poisons they manufacture to provide us relief. But it's not just the average person who reasons this was, highly education individuals with alphabet soup initials after their names on a business card follow this same flawed human reasoning as well, see the example here (Scientists Justify Mosquito Extermination from Earth)  Okay, let's continue:

"The farmer originally thought that ants were controlling the cochineals, but it turned out to be other insects. Six known predators of cochineals were found on the plantation, including different species of beetles, moths, lacewings, and flies — but no ants."

"This finding is important because the two most common ways to control scale insects in prickly pear in Mexico are 1) to use organophosphates, a class of insecticide that Mexican regulatory agencies do not recommend for this use, or 2) to knock the insects off of the plants using mechanical brooms. This study suggests there might be an alternative: natural control as a result of biodiversity, also known as autonomous self-governing control."

Photo by J.A. Cruz-Rodríguez

Colonies of scale insects (Dactylopius opuntiae)
 on fruits of a prickly pear (Opuntia megacantha)

"However, Dr. J. A. Cruz-Rodríguez, an author on the paper, warns that this method of control isn’t necessarily one that can be applied at will to other plantations or crops."

"Autonomous biological pest control cannot be considered a technology that is applied or not depending on the level of the pest,” he said. “It is a process that is established and maintained if the agroecosystem retains structural complexity and diversity of species."

"In other words, a lot of conditions must be met in order for autonomous self-governing control to be viable."

This is where people need to sit back and ponder, meditate and slow down and reason on any action to be taken with regards any possible biological controls and not automatically dismiss the idea that it cannot be done under every situation. While the researchers say the success the Mexican cacti plantation farmer had cannot be replicated for other crops, their next statement gives clues as to the error in their judgement on this:

"Autonomous control requires an ecological infrastructure that supports a network of interactions that limit the explosive growth of herbivores,” Cruz-Rodríguez said. “Intercropping, agroforestry systems, non-use of biocidal products (or its more rational application) — they all contribute to the formation of the biotic network that prevents the development of pests.This study shows that if the conditions are right, farmers can potentially use natural predators for autonomous control."

(Source)

This last paragraph really says it all and actually allows for the door for biocontrol for other crops to remain open. Not only scientists, but anyone should proceed and experiment on their own as a sort of what is being called a "citizen scientist" and share successful results with others. Believe it or not, professional researchers learn very much from people considered layman who have a natural passion for a specific phenomena found in Nature. Remember, even in healthy forested environments where all vegetation looks perfectly healthy, the insects and plants otherwise considered pests or weeds are still present, but their numbers are kept in check through a complex infrastructure of biological controls. Learning what those are can be fun and rewarding. Now let's look below at some information about this white scale insect you probably never knew. Did you know that in many places around the globe like Mexico and Iran, they are farmed for their red dye ingredients potential for the fabrics industry ? Below is a photo of an Iranian Cacti  plantation which has these little baskets attached to prickly pear pads. Click on the link below the photo of an Iranian website in English which goes into great deal on how this so-called pest is an income earner for some Iranian Farmers.

Farming Cochineals scale insects (Dactylopius opuntiae), for their raw material for the manufacture of Red dye

http://iranpazirik.com/htmls/cochincal.htm

"Cochineals are farmed in the traditional method by planting infected cactus pads or infecting existing cacti with cochineals and harvesting the insects by hand. The controlled method uses small baskets called Zapotec nests placed on host cacti. The baskets contain clean, fertile females which leave the nests and settle on the cactus to await insemination by the males. In both cases the cochineals have to be protected from predators, cold and rain. The complete cycle lasts 3 months during which the cacti are kept at a constant temperature of 27 °C. Once the cochineals have finished the cycle, the new cochineals are ready to begin the cycle again or to be dried for dye production."

"To produce dye from cochineals, the insects are collected when they are approximately ninety days old. Harvesting the insects is labor-intensive as they must be individually knocked, brushed or picked from the cacti and placed into bags. The insects are gathered by small groups of collectors who sell them to local processors or exporters."

Wasn't that a fantastic explanation on a subject most of us had no clue existed or could even imagine possible ? You'll find similar circumstances with many other plants and insects throughout the world. Believe it or not, most people in the industrial countries are often totally ignorant of the reality of the natural world around them and the potential for ecologically viable business possibilities. Finally one last look at that website and a quote about other nation economies who make a living with this, *cough-cough*,  Pest.

http://iranpazirik.com/htmls/cochincal.htm

"As of 2005, Peru produced 200 tonnes of cochineal dye per year and the Canary Islands produced 20 tonnes per year. Chile and Mexico have also recently begun to export cochineal. France is believed to be the world's largest importer of cochineal; Japan and Italy also import the insect. Much of these imports are processed and reexported to other developed economies."

Washington State University Ag Extension Compost Tea Webinar Revisited

Soil without Biology is simply Geology

Well the Webinar put on by Washington State University Ag Extension gals (Lynn Carpenter-Boggs Associated Professor of Sustainable and Organic Agriculture at WSU & Catherine Crosby who is a PhD candidate for Soil Science also @ WSU) provided very informative material for recipes regarding compost teas and how to use them finally them came and went without all the advertise upset by individuals with a vested interest in industrial science. With all the advertised potential for anti-science rants coming from the WSU Garden Professors over the potential negative harm this Webinar was going to cause in the public's mind in creating a less than scientifically minded landscapers/gardeners, what actually came across in this Webinar was totally opposite of what most followers of the Professors would have expected. The Compost Tea Webinar was very intelligently presented, honestly & refreshingly informative in educating listeners that this was a new field of research yet to be thoroughly tested scientifically and the need for caution where some potential areas of both dangers and benefits where carefully and respectfully pointed out minus the usual smug sarcasm often experienced with this subject. For the folks who have yet to watch the Compost Tea Webinar, here it the link and keep in mind it's about 75 minutes in length.

WSU eXtension: Making and Using Compost Teas

First off I'd like to confess, I've never really been one to actually use compost tea. My Mum has made her own and swears by it. And the plants in the yard never looked better. The closest I've come to using a type of compost tea is using Kelp or Seaweed Extract and Liquefied Fish Emulsion diluted with water for a tea used for watering newly emerged seedling and again after transplanting them into one gallon containers. But this was limited as they were always soon outplanted. However according to Catherine Crosby, my version of the compost tea still wouldn't qualify as real compost tea because I never left the mixture ferment beyond one hour. True, after mixing I always used the blend immediately. Mostly my purpose was to provide slight nutrient availability to small seedlings while containerized as I though using any type of pellets, crystals  or other was simply too rich a diet for small seedlings and would be nothing more than waste. I must say this practice was always without fail successful for the need intended. But all in all I thought both women who were the presenters of the Webinar did a wonderful job, NEITHER saying anything controversial nor unscientific as the WSU Garden Professor criticism always hyped. Both were very upfront that there really is not a lot of scientific data on compost recipe blends, successes, etc. They both did quite a bit on cautioning people on potential for unhealthful conditions if done wrong [like creating an anaerobic tea. They strongly insisted that no human or other animal waste contaminants be used and that aeration of the mixture was imperative to create an aerobic compost tea as opposed to an anaerobic tea which would smell and probably have the wrong type of microbes present. One of the other interesting things mentioned was that compost tea is being look at as a possible experimental pesticide. Now this was interesting, but let's define pesticide here for a moment. Pesticide could be the elimination of anything that would do harm to a garden, urban landscape or commercial farm for which numerous synthetic chemicals would otherwise be employed like insecticides, fungicides, herbicides etc. Specifically here both woman, but especially Lynne Carpenter-Boggs alluded to the fact of compost tea having a potential for preventative suppression of pathogens, blights and powdery mildews on foliage, but that more experimentation and testing be done for the correct formula.

Again on this association of Compost Tea as being a possible pesticide, I have found several stories around the net about whether or not compost teas will kill bugs. Let's be honest, when the mere mention of the word "pesticide" is always used, the #1 thing that comes to folk's minds are Bugs. Almost no one will consider the full definition range of what the word actually means. I mean there are also blight, mildews, viral infections and other bacteria diseases that should also come to mind, along with unwanted weeds. The term pesticide encompasses all those things. But will compost teas kill bug ??? Absolutely not, unless one fell into a five gallon pail of your compost tea and drowned because it couldn't climb out. Mostly here compost tea is used as a soil and foliage inoculent and that's it. It was interesting to me the other day when someone contacted me and reported that the members/followers over on the Garden Professors Blog's Facebook community pages were discussing once again the controversial Compost Tea Webinar from WSU. Okay, but there was nothing controversial about it. The problem is many of these Garden Professor followers & Garden Rant types they attract like to hunt down and post stuff which may be of a controversial nature just what kind of outraged they can get from one of one of the Garden Professors or fellow sel-proclaimed Master Gardeners. One individual who seems like a nice enough guy, who also patterns his own blog as a fable and myth buster for gardening posted this statement to see how Linda Chalker-Scott would react. 

"I found the following statement very interesting. Why is this true,  "compost tea is considered to be an experimental pesticide" - Robert Pavlis

Well she didn't disappoint. Took everything out of context and in fact didn't think thoroughly about what was actually said [going purely off the vague quote mine mentioned in the Webinar and I suspect that was because she hadn't actually viewed it, before she blurted out:

"Legally there is no such designation. It's not registered anywhere as a pesticide so using that term is not appropriate." - Garden Professor, Linda Chalker-Scott

This was unbelievable. This actually exposes the fact that she didn't actually watch the Webinar before making this comment. Even the quote mined reference should have been a clue they never stated such a thing when all they said was it was being considered as something experimental. Mostly her uninformed response played off her preconceived prejudice and biases against compost teas. No where did EITHER women, Catherine Crosby or Lynne Carpenter-Boggs EVER say compost tea was a registered pesticide let alone a simple natural pesticide. They both emphatically stated  it was being considered as an EXPERIMENTAL Pesticide, which means that someone is probably merely experimenting with various formulations, possibly involving some sort of specific microbes and/or natural extracts to trigger an immune response in plants against pathogens. That's all there was folks, they never even hinted that compost tea should ever be considered a registered pesticide. But it get's even worse, when a member named John A Perazzo asks for clarification on the term pesticide whom I assume think like many others [including Ms Chalker-Scott] that these ladies were talking insect pests.

"Is there another word in English that distinguishes something from chemically killing pests (a pesticide) to say, starving the pests to death?" - John A. Perazzo

So rather than doing her own homework so she could clearly ascertain what both Catherine Crosby and Lynne Carpenter-Boggs actually meant by using the term pesticide, she assumes like everyone else, they are saying compost tea will kill insects.

"Not really, It doesn't matter how the pest dies - it makes the agent a pesticide. (And just to be clear - compost tea has no consistent, demonstrated pesticidal effect.)"        Garden Professor, Linda Chalker-Scott 

Now when Catherine Crosby first made mention of "considered as an experimental pesticide", I instantly knew exactly what she was probably alluding to. In fact later on in the Webinar when Lynne Carpenter-Boggs took over and said basically the same identical thing, but also she further clarified what was meant and it totally confirmed what I already knew. Here is what Lynne Carpenter-Boggs actually said and clarified at the 17:30 mark of that Webinar:

"In the last portion of this talk we'll talk about compost tea as a disease suppressant and some of the research that's been done in this area. And then get into the legality of using compost teas. The first thing I want to say about what Cece mentioned about using compost tea as a disease suppressant or disease control is that this is being considered as an experimental pesticide and that we are NOT recommending the use of compost tea for use as disease control."

 "The one thing we can say about the research out there is that the results are mixed. There are some studies showing that a particular compost teas have suppressed particular diseases and there are a few studies that suggest that compost teas have actually worsened disease. Sometimes we also see enhanced plant growth and the reasons a particular compost tea enhanced plant growth is that they may have contained some nutrients. There are also some studies showing that some compost teas contain plant hormones, so that's another method by which they may be increasing plant growth in some studies. There are some studies which show reduced harvestable yields as well as some studies which show increased harvestable yields. And some studies which show no noticeable effects."

"As Cece mentioned, there are many many kinds of compost teas, there is no single compost tea. So it's not surprising that when studies pop up that will show in compost teas, the results are going to be really different. Then of course every disease is going to have a different life cycle and the teas have been used in somewhat different ways so that it should be a surprise that results are really mixed. There needs to be a lot more work done before any kind of recommendations can be made. So with those caveats there are dozens of studies which showing  that the use of compost tea reduced or controlled certain diseases."  - Lynne Carpenter-Boggs

I'll leave it there as there is so many more incredible things she next talks about as far as from a mechanisms standpoint which I gravitate towards anyway. She actually shows us in the video the exact same slide photo of a fungal species called Trichoderma attacking a pathogen by actually boring holes into it. Just like the one here on the right. Trichoderma is not necessarily as glamorous as other fungi with those wonderfully tasty and beautiful truffles, but rather looks more like the fungal mold in your bathroom build up. I just finished writing about this fungi the other day. (Here)  The reason I am writing about it is because it produces some incredible amazing epigenetic effects depending on the soil environment or ecosystem it is residing in, the different plants etc and all the while triggering on switches to plant genomes to produce chemical immune defense products to ward off pathogens before they arrive. In fact Lynne also names a naturally occurring commercially produced product called Harpin Technology which is a protein in the form of an RNA protein chemical which can be sprayed on the outer surfaces of plant foliage to simulate an attack which triggers the plant's immune system chemical defenses. Here is something further that Lynne Carpenter-Boggs referenced regarding potential for the right formulation of compost tea being utilized as a systemic drench which would act as an systemic acquired resistance inducer for triggering the plant's own immune system response prior to being actually attacked.

"There can also be stimulation of plant responses and we'll go into more detail on this one because it's really interesting. And there also be an interference with the disease life cycle. In some cases for instance we see that diseases need to build up to a high population before they turn to a pathogenic stage of their life cycle and the use of compost teas again partially by means of microbial competition can simply reduce the likelihood that pathogenic population reaches a high level in that life cycle of pathogenic phase. So we'll talk a little bit more on that systemic acquired resistance and compost teas are definitely not the only kind of  material that's being researched and being used to stimulate a systemic acquired resistance in a plant. What this is like is a sort of "plant vaccination" and you're stimulating a plant response prior to a pathogen attack. Now plants can make and use a number of defense compounds to protect the cell wall or to  break down the pathogen. We can look at what happens in the plant apply an inducer material which in some cases might be a compost tea, but also there are commercial products like Harpins that can induce this response."

This was awesome that she referenced commercially available Harpin products. I first stumbled upon the Harpin Protein Technology when I purchased my mycorrhizal inoculation products from Plant Health Care Inc (PHC) out of Pennsylvania, if I remember correctly. This Harpin is one of a class of proteins occurring in nature by certain bacterial plant pathogens. Like the epigenetic trigger inducing immune system response effects on a host plant whose root system is colonized with Trichoderma virens which I wrote about the other day (Here: Trichoderma virens systemic inducer) , this Harpin protein can also elicit a complex natural defense mechanism within plants. While most of the conventional pesticides we've all used in the past act directly on the target pest, this Harpin protein when it comes in contact with a plant's foliage, according to the developer of the product, elicits a protective response in the plant to producer it's own defense compounds that makes it resistant to a wide range of fungal, bacterial, and viral diseases. Because the use of Harpin protein has the potential to substantially reduce use of more toxic pesticides, especially fungicides and certain soil fumigants, such as methyl bromide. And I hate methyl bromide as I've written about in the past regarding sterilizing seedling growing media to prevent damping off in regards to emergence of the seedlings who rot at the root collar just at the soil level. (Read Here)

Plant Health Care Inc., (PHC)

In nature, this Harpin protein is produced by an organism called,  Erwinia amylovora, which is the same bacterium that causes the disease fire blight in apples, pears and also several of the native California plants I have used and planted like California Coffeeberry. The commercial production of this Harpin Protein actually comes from a weakened strain of Escherichia coli has been genetically modified to produce Harpin on a commercial scale. Commercially produced Harpin protein is identical to the protein that occurs in nature. E. coli K-12 which is considered to be a non-pathogenic, nutritionally deficient bacterium which is supposedly unable to grow in the environment. Of course we've heard this before, but who knows. This Harpin product is concentrated from the growth medium of the genetically modified E. coli, and the bacterial cells are killed and removed from the marketed product. Again, all it takes is that one rouge bacterium that gets free, so who knows. Plant Health Care Inc was not the original inventor and Patent holder, I believe they purchased this technology from another company (Eden Bioscience Corp) and then started their own commercial production. The product I believe was released back in 2002 as Messenger® by Eden Biosciences. About this 2006 when I moved to Sweden, the folks at  (PHC) were becoming distant and disconnected from their original end user clientele. With the retirement of their chief science officer Dr Donald Marx and later the death of his wife Faye down in Frogmore South Carolina where they use to hold regular workshops teaching landscapers, farmers and others on the microbial world and how it operates and functions and how (PHC) had the products to replicate management of commercial plant operations as a viable ecosystem, but this educational program came to a halt. Finally for me what broke the proverbial camel's back was their agreements with Monsanto in licensing for this generic engineered Harpin technology. There was more focus in doing business with other corporate giants and also becoming a corporate giant themselves where the push and marketing for stock shares was what most of their website was all about. I tried contacting their UK Office for info on obtaining product here in Europe, but the guy I dealt with wasn't overly interested nor helpful in that regard. He promised to send me a product list and pricing but I never received them. The end user landscape division of Retail product sales was sold off to Lebanon Turf , also from Pennsylvania which to this day still sells PHC products. I believe the products are most likely still excellent products, but I simply switched over to Mycorrhizal Applications Inc out of Grant Pass Oregon.

WSU - Lynne Carpenter-Boggs

Here is my point in giving you a bit of history about all of this issue with the mention of "compost tea considered an experimental pesticide" and the Harpin Technology. Clearly in that WSU eXtension Compost Tea Webinar, both Grad Student, Catherine Crosby and soils microbiologist, Lynne Carpenter-Boggs did indeed mention this briefly a few times, but made sure everyone knew this was considered experimental. There was no dogmatic insistence that it was considered a registered pesticide. That exposes the fact that Linda Chalker-Scott hadn't really watched the Webinar at that time, otherwise there would be no reason to make the accusation. Also the present Lynne Carpenter-Boggs was the one who brought up the Harpin technology by name and the obvious reasons were that proteins manufactured by some bacteria can have a triggering effect in turning on the plant's immune response to contact. If indeed some researcher did one day discover a safe bacteria which could be added to the tea that would elicit such a mild response of plant immune system boosting then so be it. This is why ongoing studies and research for just the correct formulations would indeed be considered experimental, because that is exactly what is going on. 

Interestingly, had Linda Chalker-Scott actually watched this Webinar and heard Lynne's reference to Harpin Technology, she would have instantly known what Lynne was referring to because guess what ? Linda Calker-Scott has in the past several years ago written about this very Harpin Protein, Eden Bioscience and their brand name product Messenger® and did so in the most negative of reviews. Many of the studies she cites date back to the early days, like the one from Cornell University. The problem however is  when I go back to Google those research studies, the dates of the studies are anywhere from 1999-2000 to 2003. It's an entirely new ballgame since 2010 and newer upgraded products by several companies exist today. I'll post her link to this Myth article she has and incredibly although the link shows an update of March 2015, her material used is mostly negative against Eden Bioscience and Messenger® from earlier studies which have nothing to do with today's products. Apparently these products have been successful through improvement. But she hasn't updated at all, so the only myth is an earlier personal biased take on this product and it's claims. Again, the Harpin Technology was purchased by PHC in 2011 and newer upgraded products are AXIOM and other brand names and even the great Monsanto has purchased licensing from PHC to manufacture their own version of Harpin products. This makes sense from a money making standpoint, because when all your other technologies with GMO plants and agro-chemicals have greatly disrupted natural underground microbiological processes, then an artificial means of systemic inducement of plant immune systems makes more financial sense. the bottom line is that there are no science-based or peer-reviewed updates regarding Myths/Facts of Harpin on her site.

Again, neither of those presenter ladies in the Webinar never made such a dogmatic statement that compost tea is an official pesticide. Once again for clarity, this is why firmly stating that compost tea was being only considered an experimental pesticide and NOT a registered pesticide as Linda Chalker-Scott in ignorance posted in response on her own forum. It is clear to me that these Garden Professors didn't exactly listen and /or pay close attention to the entire Webinar if at all at the time it was released. Their ranting followers have much of the same selective reading quote mining and comprehension problem as well. Many of them even have their own websites dedicated with nothing more than garden ranting about landscaping myths and/or fables and championing themselves as professional debunkers.

Cece Crosby

One of the disappointing comments was where someone questioned how really scientifically qualified the presenters really were. The qualifications of Catherine (Cece) Crosby were brought up because she is only a Grad Student. Seriously, so what ??? They both did a very professional job in educating the public on things they may have never considered and the real unprofessional conduct came from those who have previous bias and prejudice against compost tea, selective quote mining and a sort of mystic ability to read between the lines. Funny, you know, anytime I ever tried reading into a text between the lines, all I ever found was empty space. Look, I'm also not overly interested in compost tea as a foliar spray or possible pest control. That doesn't mean it couldn't work given the correct formulation and handling of how it was made. I believe, like some of the things these Garden Professors stated, about letting compost do it's job under trees and shrubs when every time it rains a new weak batch of teas are produced for the benefit of the plant. Now that make work wonderful in wetter Washington or Canada, but what about the southwest where far less rain falls ??? However, I have no problem if someone wishes to do these things. In fact I am very impressed with Harvard Yard's professional and successful use of compost teas on their lawns. The lawns and soils vastly improved and for me as a former landscape head gardener with a commercial property management company who actually hated lawns, I love the fact that Harvard Yard's non-chemical (synthetics for those who love definition shell games) methods kept the grass greener and made it grow slower. That translates as less mowing and dealing with waste and far less money being put out for massive amounts of chemical inputs. 

photo: Getty Images

The Garden Ranters set out to paint a unfair picture of people who chose to take a holistic approach as mad citizen-scientists working behind the scenes in one of their own bathtub operations or new-agey Luddites promoting Voodoo science for profit. I find many of their rants as nothing more than time wasting nonsense created to entertain an elite few within a certain specific cultural setting who have little else to occupy their time for the benefit of others. So the question now is, "How can the average person really know for a certainty just what is the right way to design, create, install and maintain your garden, landscape or even commercial Farming operation successfully and free oneself from the shackles of corporate agro-chemical recommendations ? First of all, it is absolutely NOT necessary for you to study and compare every so-called myth or fable advertised and promoted out there [this even includes many of the heavily advertised science-based & peer-reviewed hype by Industrial Science business interests] or even weeding through the plethora of self-help book teachings of all the many Garden/Landscape Gurus out there. You need only learn about whole complete natural plant community ecosystems and how really function and maintain themselves. Very few people do this anymore and this includes numerous scientists stuck in a Lab away from the real life outdoors. This also requires the average person getting themselves outdoors which is imperative. It's not enough to read the popular books [even scientific textbooks] which exclaim how they have the peer-review, science-based and settled consensus science to back them up. You may find that such recommended techniques will probably need specific tailoring to your own specific region. Look for healthy viable horticultural practices that biomimic or replicate how nature actually functions and operates out in the field. So again, you don't have to read and study every popular garden fad that makes the internet rounds. So then now what ???

US secretservice.gov

To illustrate: In many lands, there is a problem with counterfeit money. If you wanted to pursue a career as a professional whose job it is to expose what really was false counterfeit money, what do you think would be the correct way you should go about it ? Would it really be necessary memorize every single kind of counterfeit money [garden myth, fable] that has ever been produced ? No. Your time would be better spent if you studied what real money actually looks like in great detail. Perhaps after you knew what real money looked like, you could then be in an educated position to recognize and identify what a true counterfeit looks like. Similarly, when you learn how to identify how whole natural plant ecosystems really work and function, then you will easily  recognize which  advertised horticultural practices [science-based or otherwise] that are the true myths and fables without all the wasted time of proving the claims wrong. It's also not necessary to be insulting or employ derogatory name calling by insulting others with labels like "pseudo-science", "anti-science", "practicing Voodoo Science" or calling others Luddites just because they do something different than you. Just leave others alone and offer the sounds advice you know for a fact that works.

In our world it seems that negativity sells. News Reports daily are loaded with negativity because for whatever reasons the average person today seems to gravitate towards that type of reading content. If a media outlet posted only positive news, they wouldn't get that large target readership needed and low ratings translates as no advertisers which means no money. I can even admit myself that when I do an article on some injustice or irresponsible practice of some corporate methods hurting the environment, I get more reads than if I write about beneficial plant findings or landscape tips. As a prime recent example, I wrote about an amazing plant which most people in Southern California demonize as of little worth. It is viewed as dull, mundane, a rangy chaparral plant of no real value other than control burning and yet it is one of the most abundant chaparral plants. The plant is Ademostoma fasciculatum otherwise known by common names of Chamise or Greasewood. This plant has incredible physical characteristics at preventing of erosion, it will grow in many places other plants will not or cannot grow and is an excellent forest "nurse plant" which facilitates plant community succession. I wrote that over two month ago and have 131 reads. And yet, I just a few weeks ago wrote about the negative attitudes of these garden professors against the people who run and maintain Harvard Yard's landscaping about a few weeks back and have over 500+ reads. Here is the point, whatever is insisted upon as fact for no other reason than it is labeled as "science-based" and/or "peer-reviewed" can itself actually be in reality factoidal. So when it comes to garden, landscaping and/or farming practices and advice, then test it out for yourselves people and do this by making comparisons on how nature really works as opposed to industrial scientific shortcuts design for cash lining the pockets of an elite few with an attitude.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'll post some reference links as promised and you can make up your own minds. Also, here is my previous post about the Garden Professor's unfair and derogatory insulting name calling rant  against the professional landscapers in charge of Harvard Yard's Soil Project who have 80+ acres to maintain at Harvard University:

The Arrogance and the Ecstasy: The difference between Good Science & Bad Science when it comes to Soil Health

"This assumption [that scientific institutions have a peculiar epistemic reliability] is at best naïve and at worst dangerous. If any human institution is held to be exempt from the petty, self-serving, and corrupting motivations that plague us all, the result will almost inevitably be the creation of a priestly caste demanding adulation and required to answer to no one but itself. 

— Austin L. Hughes, The New Atlantis, Fall 2012

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Now to be completely honest & fair, as I've stated, I do believe in many of the things said by Linda Chalker-Scott and the practices she suggests. But the Blog and Garden Professors Forum have just gotten out of control with pouncing on every little burp or hiccup that is perceived as an imaginary  flaw or mistake.

 Here is something she wrote that I do like [well 90%] about Mycorrhizae. It fits in with most things I have observed and even read about. The main disagreement I have is she is one of these "You never need to inoculate the soils because the fungi are just out there in the soils". WRONG, conventionally maintained agricultural soils which have for decades followed the industrial dogma are virtually devoid of the healthy organisms that benefit soil building qualities. Same with urban landscapes where again, people have maintained their landscapes/gardens using the same failed synthetics as commercial farms. And this is especially true where new housing development has property pads created from sterile sub-soils, often made of nothing but decomposed granite with zero organic matter. So here is a link she provides which I mostly do like.

MYCORRHIZAE: So, what the heck are they, anyway? 

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Garden Professor Myth and Fable Links:

http://puyallup.wsu.edu/lcs

The Myth of the Magic Bullet (Harpin - old & outdated but still pimped)

Plant Health Care Inc and Lebanon Turf

http://www.planthealthcare.com

http://www.lebanonturf.com

http://www.agprofessional.com/news/eden_bioscience_to_sell_harpin_technology_nearly_all_assets_to_plant_health_care_inc_120143654.html

Some viable alternatives to using genetically engineered Harpin Proteins - In the USA the Knotweed extract product is marketed under the name Regalia®

Marrone Bioinnovations: "Regalia" (USA brands)

Marrone Bioinnovations: "Regalia RX" (USA brands)

Over here in Europe, the Knotweed extract product is marketed under the name Milsana®

http://www.biofa-profi.de/en/#slide-2

http://www.biohelp.at/

California Fan Palm (Washingtonia filifera) growth explosion with Mycorrhizal Fungi

A California Fan Palm planted into a front yard landscape from a one gallon container out performs 3  five gallon Mexican Fan Palms which not only had a more massive root system, but also three times the height. So what happened ??? - "Mycorrhizal Fungi"

(image: Mine July 2014)

Image taken on July 2014

It all began last year at the start of July 2014, I purchased four more Palms for my mothers front yard to create the appearance of an Oasis among plants of the Pea family like Red Mexican Bird of Paradise (Caesalpinia pulcherrima), Baja Fairyduster (Calliandra californica) & Screwbean Mesquite (Prosopis pubescens). There was already an existing Mexican Fan Palm which had volunteered on my mother's property and my brother had moved it back in 2005 to where you see it in the photograph above. I'm still blown away by the fact that since 2006, that palm has grown very slowly from from a foot tall plant to what you see here above in last year's photograph. You may want to take special note of the size of not only the one gallon Washingtonia filifera, but also the height of the Washingtonia mexicana in the background which you'll seed more than doubled in height in the September 2015 photograph. But what blew me away on this year's (2015) return is to see what has happened with the one gallon California Fan Palm I purchased from Las Pilitas Native Plant Nursery in relation to 3 other purchased five gallon Mexican Fan Palms I purchased from Lowes on the last week of July 2014 when I planted them. This native Southern California palm is just normally slower growth than it's cousin the Mexican Fan Palm.

The major difference maker was inoculating the California Fan Palm heavily within the soil at planting time with the as opposed to simply planting the Mexican Fan Palms without the beneficial fungi. The reason is I thought the Mexican Fan Palms would explode with fast growth on their own because as a natural rule they are much faster growing than Washingtonia filifera. Wow was I ever wrong. The California Fan Palm grew another three feet, while 2 of the five gallon Mexican Fan Palms put on only a foot of growth. The third Mexican Fan Palm actually died. I seriously should have inoculated everything. But after all these years of successes and positives which have greatly exceeded all expectations, I'm still excited by amazing changes almost before my very eyes. We're talking just exactly a year and two months. This is why documenting such things is so important, because those who are behind the Industrial Agriculture business model are not at all in favour of such practices and their successes. But take a look at last year's (2014) W. filifera to this year's (2015) results below.

Over four foot of growth between the period of July 2014 to August 2015. So why is it again that home owners and professional landscapers have preferred using the faster growing Washingtonia robusta over the so-called slower growing native Southern California - Washingtonia filifera ???

(image: Mine Sept 2015)

(image: Mine July 3, 2014)

The photograph above of the California Fan Palm is little over four foot tall as I did measure it at the frond tips. At the time of planting, this one gallon tree was barely one foot tall at the tips of it's small fronds. The big difference maker was inoculation with Mycorrhizal Applications Inc's product called MycoApply. I should also note however that I also bored holes in the ground around the base of the large 11 year old Mexican Fan Palm (why I don't know) and again with the Engelmann Oak (Quercus engelmannii) on the opposite side of that largest and oldest Mexican Fan Palm as well. In any event, you can also notice the drastic difference in growth with that 11 year old Mexican Fan Palm in the same landscape Oasis photo at the very bottom of this post if you scroll on down. But also take a look at the 2013 one gallon Engelmann Oak (again purchased from Las Pilitas) which was planted in the front yard Oasis on April 2013 and the contrast of where it is today 2015. 

(image: Mine September 2015)

(image: Mine June 2013)

This one gallon Engelmann Oak was purchased and planted in late May of 2013. The first photo on the right side here  was actually taken on June 30th 2013 where you can see how that year's Spring branch buds which sprouted after planting grew another few more inches. So technically this small tree was less than a foot of growth from the Nursery. The top photograph above shows the tree actually well over six foot tall. I'm 6.3 foot tall, so it was a nice surprise also to see the growth of this tree slightly towering over me. I also imagine that the mycorrhizal fungi from the Oak has  moved underground towards that largest Mexican Fan Palm you see to the left in the Oak photograph above. Once again, compare the height of that Palm today (2015) compared to last year (2014). Big difference. Still the slow growth of the five gallon planted Mexican Fan Palms was a surprise to me, but I'll inoculate them this year before I go back to Sweden. During yesterday's monsoonal rainstorm, the curb on the opposite side of my mother's street rain had flood water reaching 5 foot out from the curb towards the center of the street. I grabbed a five gallon orange Home Depot bucket and placing it in the deepest part of the runoff against the curb, the bucket filled up in a matter of seconds. I then proceeded to walk back to my Mother's front yard and dump the contents under various shrubs. It just kills me to see such as waste of city storm runoff which ends up downstream into the ocean. This runoff develops from all the concrete and asphalt surfaces of a housing development called Sky Ranch built on top of Rattlesnake Mountain above Pepper Drive Elementary School. I made more than 50+ trips right about the time School let out at 3:00 pm. I got soaking wet, but it felt wonderful. The kids parents were parked up and down the street. Some snickered, others complimented me.  Some day these municipal flood control infrastructures within city limits are going to be designed or redesigned to be better at rainwater harvesting and infusing such water into the city park landscapes and road medians. It just makes logical sense. Anyway, the rainfall totals over my mother's landscape artificially increased by a couple more inches, especially around the Manzanitas. 

(image: Mine September 2015)
 Basically 4 years old landscape from 2011

(image: Mine Sept 2015)

Mexican Red Bird of Paradise 
seeds germinatinng after one rainstorm

This is a contrasting view of the same photo at the top of this post which was taken last year. Notice in this year's photo above how much growth and taller the largest 11 year old Mexican Fan Palm has gotten when you look at it's height as seen behind the Baja Fairyduster ? And to me there is not a whole lot of noticeable difference in the smaller Mexican Fan Palm here than the photo at top. The California Fan Palm is hidden behind this largest Palm and out of view. Also take special note of the photo here at the right. We had a wonderful long soaking monsoonal rain on our visit in September which lasted most of the day and tapering off during the night with mist through this morning. These seeds on the concrete driveway are from the Mexican Red Bird of Paradise and they are some of the easiest things I have ever germinated and grown. We have no weeds, but the seedlings would almost qualify as they are very prolific in germinating. Seriously, I don't know why anyone would ever purchase one of these plants at a retail nursery. One of the greatest compliments I've gotten over the last few days working out in the yard and trimming is people walking past the house wondering what I feed the landscape to make everything so lush and intense as far as flowering. My response of course is nothing. I have never once used either synthetic nor organic fertilizers to accomplish anything. All plants are inoculated generally at time of planting and the only other addition is mulch. As a side point here before I continue, take note of the photo from four years ago in 2011. Take note how tall the largest Mexican Fan Palm was back then and it was already 4 years old and barely hanging on, before I started inoculating with MycoApply. 

Same exact location, but photo is from 2011

(image: Mine 2015)

Can you find the Spider ?

Sometimes in the beginning after the original installation and inoculation, I'll inoculate further the next year and perhaps a couple years after that to build up soil microbial community and build up the soil carbon. My only yearly addition into the landscape is a thin layer of decorative pine or cedar mulch which will break down slowly by the mycorrhizae and other beneficial bacteria which will release nutrients back into the system ever so slowly. Under the the synthetic industrial science-based method, most of the fertilizer is lost to percolation and runoff. The point is once you create a natural healthy ecosystem within your own urban landscape, the health of the entire plant community increases negating the need for all the other industrial science-based synthetic chemicals such as insecticides and herbicides. The use of insecticides destroys every single beneficial predator insects such as the Spider shown above left. She was a surprise to find. I only noticed her because of the long trail of dired flower petals caught or woven into her foot long nest. Interesting I wondered what exactly she was catching, possibly bees. However my mother has a motion censor nightlight on the corner of the garage and when walking out the front door at night it is triggered to come on. Several nights I walked out and notice in the Red Bird of Paradise bush the blooms were being visited by numerous little white Moths with black speckles on their  wings. That was interesting since many types of garden and farm pest moths fly at night in desert agricultural areas. Hence such checks & balances critters are imperative. But the synthetic chemicals target them as well as pests and in their absence, the pest populations rise despite the chemicals. Once this type of industrial scenario is created, then you become shackled and prisoner into following the industrial maintenance program. And the sad fact is you cannot win. The only winner is the industrial agro-chemical company. Much of the synthetic fertilizers cause excessive growth which attracts insect pests and many pathogenic diseases in the form of powdery mildew etc. This is the same program or system used to grow your food found at the local grocery store produce aisles. The need for synthetic chemical herbicides also radically decreases as the mycorrhizal networks outcompete the weeds (ruderals) for available soil phosphorus. Weeds thrive in a bacterial soil system, not a mycorrhizal one. Any weeds that do make the occasional appearance are greatly stunted. Generally my mother's landscape has 4 or 5 anual weeds within the mycorrhizal soils in her landscape's sphere of influence and generally stunted with no effect on the trees, shrubs and other plants. 

(image: Mine 2014)

BTW, last year when planting the other palms, this palm root from the largest tree was 14 foot away from the Mexican Fan Palm. It reveals just how far palms will go in search of water. It's extremely imperative that people reading here do not simply take my word for all this, but make practical application within their own landscape or gardening projects. By all means challenge my methods, please.  This is what burns knowledge of such methods into your mind's personal experience. The majority of people have been indoctrinated into the industrial conventional business model through millions of dollars of annual advertising and also the infusing of massive amounts of funding within this world's Academia to maintain the industrial status quo. The earth simply cannot afford this type of irresponsible behaviour any longer. This isn't about pseudoscience or anti-science, this is about horrible irresponsible science versus good healthy holistic biomimetic science.

(Caesalpinia pulcherrima and caesalpinia mexicana)

The plant above on the right in the photo is Mexican Yellow Bird of Paradise (Caesalpinia mexicana). It would make a nice contrast in the landscape. While I love the Red Bird of Paradise, it can be overwhelming with too much of the same colour. I already have several of the native South American native Yellow Bird of Paradise (Caesalpinia gilliesii - native to Argentina & Bolivia) planted throughout, but they flower very early in Spring season where the others are mainly in full summer blooming. These of course naturalize very easily and we also have to pull up seedlings as they appear, but not hard to keep a handle on. Below I'll post some links of previous articles on planting members of the Pea family (Legume) and I'll also provide the post of where the Oasis landscape was planted in the dead heat of summer during 100+ Fahrenheit (40 celsius) intense heat. It really can be done and while mycorrhizal fungi inoculum is a must, the timing of the day is everything. I'm not sure how many will read this post or take it seriously, but at the very least I've been further able to document something I should have recorded years ago. People are going to have to start viewing nature as a sophisticated biological machines with various fascinating complex components. By far the most amazing thing about this subject was something that I didn't expect from the California Fan Palm and that was extremely rapid growth. Even with the mycorrhizae colonized on the root system, I fully expected little change from when I planted that little one gallon Fan Palm. I never cease to be amazed by these successes.

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Next Year's (2016) Experiment Watch: Mexican Blue Fan Palm (Brahea armata)

Image: My Sister Aimee (November 2015)
Two Mexican Blue Fan Palms from 5 Gallon Containers

 Next year in in Spring I hope I am able to come back over and check on the progress of to entirely different palms which are even more challenging when it comes to slow growth. These are the two Mexican Blue Fan Palms (Brahea armata) that I planted just the last week of my visit in El Cajon. The growth on these are extremely slow compared to most and they are extremely root sensitive, so what difference with the MycoApply Soluble Maxx have on their growth is anyone's guess. I'd love to see a dramatic change because these are so rarely messed with by most landscapers and homeowners for the simple reason people want instant landscape and for the fact that many still are not all that attracted to plants with a gray/blue green foliage. One thing that helps in decision making in my personal experience is being capable of visualizing what any tree or shrub will look like in the landscape. It is imperative to understand the plant's height, width, it's silhouette especially for a background tree as both of these. In my mind, I picture the example in the photo at right. In my opinion they are one of the more handsome palms when in flower as you can see in the photo. On the wait and see challenge side of things when it comes to root sensitivity, ever see those large semi tractor trailer flatbed trucks hauling large several meters high palms being transported from Tree Farms to landscape location in the desert resort areas ? It is almost impossible to do that with a Mexican Blue Fan Palm. When the machinery in the orchard cuts the roots and pulls the tree from the ground, most palms are fine, but not the Blue Fan Palm. They require the movers to first use a propane blow torch and burn the root system. This cauterizes the wounded root cuts, because otherwise being normally planted in the ground like other palms, it would bleed to death. Now growth will emerge from the burned area, but this method is imperative. This is why when search for these specific palms I looked for a one gallon container. Impossible to find, mostly because the palms are slow growing and most people wouldn't have the patience to wait for larger landscape specimen to develop. So the MycoApply's ability to prevent transplant shock and stimulate faster than normal growth will be extremely important, not only for these palm's health, but also possibly prove to the industry what can be accomplished for future successes.

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Some of my recent posts on Mexican and California Fan Palms, this year and last year in 2014.  The first follows the incredible lengths Washingtonia filifera roots will go to in search of water. The second is about the invasive nature of Washingtonia robusta in the coastal canyons around urban areas of San Diego California and the further wildfire spreading threat potential they create

 Getting to the Root of why Natives rule & Exotics struggle or outright fail

"Day of the Triffids" or "Monolith Monsters" ? (Mexican Fan Palm - Washingtonia robusta)

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Further Important Reading References

Is it safe to plant & water California Natives Plants in Summer ?

Water provides a Hydropatterning Blueprint for Rooting Architecture & "Infrastructure" 

Creating Chaparral Alcoves in your Landscape for personal regeneration & meditation retreats

Using Nature's Mycorrhizal Tool-Kit to compete with Weeds vrs killing them with Glyphosate

Deep Irrigation Methods for Training Deeper Rooting networks

Utilizing Ornamentals of the Legume Family in Southwest Landscapes